Closer
by RomanceAnd2ndChances
Summary: Austin Monica Moon is in love with his best friend Ally Dawson. The problem with this situation is that he no longer has any contact with her. It's been 5 years since he last saw her and yet he wishes he had a chance to tell her how he felt. Now out of the blue Ally comes back from New York but with another man.
1. Prelude

May 23, 2006

"Ladies and Gentlemen let's put our hands together for our graduating class of 2006."

All the seniors in royal blue gowns cheered in happiness as they moved their cap tassels from the left side to the right. This so called special day is celebrated by all the seniors and their families, as the now young adults leave their high school years behind them. Usually every graduate is happy and relief to be out of their school but I can't say I am …

A few rows ahead of me, sat my best friend and childhood crush Ally Dawson. As I continued to admire the woman with wavy brown, I couldn't help but noticed how happy she was talking to her best girlfriend about her next stop after high school. Her dark brown eyes showed how ecstatic she was to leave to place on a free scholarship to M.U.N.Y in a few weeks. Meanwhile her smile spread through her thin pink lips. Ally's family and mine just celebrated the acceptance letter yesterday without showing her how we really felt about her departure. I guess the reason why is because we weren't sure what to say. Take me for example: at first I was hurting on the inside to let her go but then again I realized that I didn't have what she wanted in life. So I just congratulate her as I took a moment to think over where I was going after high school.

I, Austin Moon was going to stay in Miami and get a major in Music. What can I say? Music is the one thing that I love in life. And I wouldn't change it for anything in the world. It is everything that I am, plus it's the only thing I have left of Ally. A smile spreads through my pink lips as I remember the dreams I used to have when I was little. They would always start out with how Ally decides to stay here forever, as our feelings for each other grew stronger, each and every day. I could just picture it right now as everyone around me gives each other goodbye hugs. Ally's flawless white skin tone body would have probably been seated down in front of a baby grand piano while she writes one of her latest songs. It was the one thing she always did whenever she had time off. In fact that is exactly how I meet Ally.

It's the one memory I love most about growing up. It all started when I was ten. My twin sisters were shopping for some sort of high school dance and were only allowed to go to the mall, if they brought me along. At first my sisters really didn't want to take care of me but at the last second they decided to take me with them, because they saw how much our mom wanted some alone time. Once we got to the mall I wondered off on my own around the mall meanwhile they went dress shopping. I didn't stop walking until I started to hearing music being played from a closed music store. I remember figuring out a way to open the locked door by picking it with a hair pin. Don't ask how I got the hair pin but let's say that it was one of my sister's pins. The next thing I did was sneaked into the store. I of course made sure that no one saw me breaking in before continued on my quest to find out where that music was coming from.

It wasn't until I made it up the stairs to the second floor of the music store did I find out where the music was coming from. There at the employs break room, upstairs is where I head the music. My yellow converses walked slowly up towards the door to see a small room full with boxes and boxes of unassembled instruments. In the corner of the room was a piano with a girl my age. She was seating on the worn out piano bench as she continued on playing. I couldn't see much of the girl except for her pink dress that she was wearing and her long brown straight hair in a half ponytail. I was in awe as I watched her hands play along the ivory keys from my hiding place.

The girl showed all her emotion she felt as she continued to play. And I must admit that was the main reason why I started to take classes at Sonic Boom. I didn't know why or how it was possible because I never knew the girl until she stopped me behind the boxes. Ally was at first freaked out and scared about me seeing her play. But after getting to know each other over the years, we became the best of friends. I didn't know the reason why I always wanted to spend a day with her until we reach high school. We were having our causal day of jamming on the piano together in the practice room. Nothing really affected me until my left hand accidently touched her right hand. For a second we made skin contact, I feel some sort of electric shock coming right through my veins meanwhile my heart started speed up. I took a great look at my teenage best friend Ally and that's when I realized… I wanted to be more than just friends. I wanted to get closer to her in every single possible way and that's when I started to accept that fact that I fell in love with her.

My eyes closed for a second before having them reopen again to a new scene in front of me. I couldn't help but focused my attention, on my angel of music. My heart started to speed up as her brown eyes connected with mine as she walked my way. Ally gave me one of her happy day smiles meanwhile I tried my hardest to give her a smile back. She stopped walking when she stood right in front of me. I was about to say something when I saw her put hand out towards my forehand and brushed her small hand across my blond highlighted wavy bangs. As she did this, I couldn't help but get lost of words as she waited for me to greet her.

"What is up Ally-cat?"

I asked the beauty in front of me in a cool tone as I embrace her body against my tan skin body. Her face touch the back of my white neck as my hands grabbed a good hold of her slim waist. We stayed in this position for a few minutes and I felt myself going into my center of peace. Ally removed her small hands off me before removing her body from my hold.

Ally gave me concern look as she asks, "Why don't you tell me what's going on… Austin?

I gave her a confused expression as she continued on saying, "Ever since I asked you about getting into Juilliard; you have been on the depression boat. And then whenever I tried to talk to you about acceptance letters; you just change the subject. Come on Austin! Tell me what's wrong?"

Seeing how worried Ally was at how I been acting, sort of made me happy because I knew that she cared so much for me. And yet at the same time it made me feel guilty because I haven't told her the bad news about not making it into the top five spot. I was planning to tell her last week but seeing how happy she was in making plans for our first week in New York. It made the situation hard for me. So now I have Ally here looking up at me with hope of an explanation for my weird behavior in a short period of time. My upper body starts to tense up as my mind reminded me, that I was leaving her alone to live in a whole new world without a friend or family member to help her. But then again my heart told me that I had to tell her news at some point. But then again I guess today would be my best chance to tell her before she hears it from someone else. So here it goes.

"Austin are you alright? You look pale and you're sweating a lot." Ally commented towards me with a freaked out expression.

I snap out of my train of thought as I swiped the sweat away from my forehead with my gown's sleeve.

"No I am not fine but there is something I need to tell you." I said softly so only she could hear me.

"What is it Austin?" She responded towards me in a calm tone.

"I didn't make it to Juilliard." I said slowly to her in painful tone as I looked down at her.

It hurt so much to admit it to Ally because she knew how much I wanted to go there. Not only that but all four generations of the Moon's family have graduated there. A great explain would me my older siblings. My brother Kurt was the class of 1991 and now he is in a professional Digital Media Arts B.A. And then my twin sisters Keely and AJ, who have both, recently, graduated from there are now under a record label as duet singers/ guitarists. The more I think about how much going to Julliard means to the family… the more realized how my life was going to be for now on.

Ally on the other hand was just as disappointed as I was. She gave me a shock and yet sad expression as she gives me another hug. The only difference between this hug and the one before is the fact that she was giving me this hug as a way for her to comfort me. I accepted this hug without saying another word.

"Then I won't go to MUNY." Ally stated back toward me from my right ear.

I pulled her body away from mine immediately before staring back into those dark brown eyes of hers. The next thing that came to my mouth shocked me but I couldn't stop myself from saying those words in a harsh tone.

"No you are not going to throw your dream out the window. I won't let you do that to yourself. "

Ally gave me a hurt expression before seeing a tear roll down her right cheek. I gave her a sorry expression as I place my hands around the top of Ally's small shoulders. Ally accepted my apology as she waited for me to continue.

"Allyson, MUNY has always been your dream. And I am going to make sure you get on there; even if it means that I have to drag you there." I responded towards in a soft tone as I tried not to cry in front of her.

Ally gives out a small chuckle as she states back, "But it won't be the same without you. Who's going to be there when I need it the most? I can't see my life without you."

"We can always Skype one another." I responded back towards her with reinsurance.

Ally gave me a small nod of agreement as she states back with fear, "You promise you will Skype me each and every day?"

I embrace her once more before stating back with confidence, "I promise."


	2. Chapter 1

It's been 1,826.210 days since the last time I saw Ally. And not once did I ever break my promise of talking to her on Skype. The very first two years we talked to each other every day. It was either texting or video chanting on our phones or computer. Everything was going great and we were always being our casual selves. That was until one day Ally stopped all communication with me all together. So now here I am waiting for her to come online. Each second that I sat here, I find myself looking at her profile picture and her status. Usually she would write lyrics to song that would be in her mind for the day. Each sentence would tell me how she is feelings or if she was on. For the past two years the lyrics to heart attack from Demi Lovato were on her profile and that's when I realized, Ally wasn't going to come on but my heart still had this hope feeling that one day she would come back online.

A smile spread through my lips as I remember Ally begging me to buy her the Demi Lovato CD. It was the day the CD came out and she kept asking me to take her to target. Or she would ask me to buy it for her. My answer at first would always be no because whenever she buys a CD, she makes me listen to it for the whole month. My guard was held up so high until Ally gives me her famous puppy pout face expression as her brown eyes begged me to say yes. By the end of week I would let out a sigh in defeat because I can never spend another day with a sad pouting Ally. For some reason I always put my guard down just to see her smile. Thank the heaven for that smile. I don't know if it is possible but just from seeing it; the atmosphere of the room would be light up. And if that isn't enough for me to feel happiness than I guess it would be whenever her inner child comes out. It hardly comes up when we were in high school but when it does, I always find myself enjoying her giddiness behavior.

A laugh came out of mouth before coming back to earth. My eyes refocus on the screen in front of me again as they looked down towards the computer's clock. It's been already three hours and yet still no sign of her on. My right hand goes up towards my dirty blond hair before having my hand pull hard on my boy cut hair in frustration.

"Ally, come online. I miss you…"

I say softly towards myself while I tried my hardest not to put my hand on my computer and throwing it across the room. A few seconds have pass by and yet nothing has changed. I let out a sigh of disappointment as I pushed my roller chair away from my dark brown wooden desk. The suspense of not knowing how Ally is doing in New York is making crazy. Doesn't she know that not talking to me is making me have sleepless at nights? Wait of course she wouldn't, I never got the chance… to tell her that I love her. Another sigh came out of my lips as my eyes looked down towards my lap. Right in front of me laid my connected hands. They were white from holding on to them too tightly while I tried my hardest not to show my emotions.

No one had ever seen my emotions… since the day of Ally departure from Miami. In fact when Ally put her two feet on that stupid plane, she took my heart with her. I know that sounds like a hopeless romantic by saying this comment but it's the truth. For many months' people around me have been telling me, that I wasn't full of life anymore. Meanwhile I on the other hand didn't respond back. Instead my honey cone eyes would look straight ahead at the wall in front of me as the memories of Ally would come back to the surface of my mind.

I decided to remove those ideas out of my mind as I got up from my desk chair. My yellow high top sneakers walked softly on top of the brown carpet meanwhile I tried my hardest not to look back. As I reached the door's frame my heard turns back toward the ten by ten room once more before turning off the lights. My left hand touches the sliver knob of the door as I closed the door in front of my face. I looked down towards the necklace I had on me, and saw Ally's key. My hands brushed against the small cold metal yellow key that was left of her. The music notes that were on the key's design were barely visible to the human eye due to it being used constantly, but I knew it was there. After all I was the one who give Ally this key to the practice room as a birthday gift.

My body did a 90 degree angle before looking out towards the music store down below. There weren't any costumers here today so I decided to close the store early. As I walked down the green stairs and towards my paradise, I thought back towards the life I had right after my high school graduation. My parents were both in shock and disappointed with me when I told them the news of not making it to Julliard. Once they recovered from the news, my parent made things at home, a little bit awkward for me. Their actions have gotten worse over the year that I couldn't take it anymore. It was so horrible that I had no other choice but to buy myself an apartment and move out of the house.

I must admit it was hard to work a job at Ally's father's music store, paying the bills and going to community college but each struggle I had was worth the fight. After three years of constant sleepless nights I graduated from (1) Mimi Dade College with an A.A. degree in music. And to celebrate my success, Ally's father hands down the music store towards me. Since then it's been my second home. Mr. Dawson told me that he was going to give it to me once he retires. Well that day came the very next day after my graduation. Mr. Dawson still works at the store once in a big while and there are times where I have to remind him that I was the owner of the store now.

A huge smile appears on my face as I looked around at all the instrument that I have laid out on display at the store. As I continued to look around, I felt myself walking toward the casher desk. As I continued my destination, a picture of a sixteen year old Ally was giving me a scold expression while she start telling me in a calm tone.

"Austin, you need to follow the rules! Or else I am going to have to ask you to leave the store"

Another laugh came out my mouth as I thought of how much of a goody two shoes Ally was growing up. Meanwhile I on the other hand was always causing problem for her whenever she was at work. I stop in front of the casher as I thought towards me; I wonder how she is doing?

A huge smile appears on my face as I looked around at all the instrument that I laid out on display at the store. As I continued to look around, I felt myself walking toward the casher desk. As I continued my destination, a picture of a sixteen year old Ally was giving me a scold expression while she started yelling at me to follow the rules or to leave the store. A laugh came out my mouth as I thought of how a goody two shoes Ally was growing up. Meanwhile I on the other hand was always causing problem for her whenever she was at work. I stop in front of the casher as I thought towards myself; I wonder how she is doing?

* * *

Another day working with these crazy mall costumers and yet I can't stop to take a second to think. Each one comes rushing towards me like I am some sort of Celebrity of their dreams. Usually I don't admit this but there has been some times where I feel like my hair is going to fall off my head at any minute. I guess the reason why is because my hands kept on going up towards my hair and pulling it at different directions. Man if I keep this up I am going to end up bald before the age fifty. Not that I want that to happen to my wavy hair, but it's possible with all this constant chaos going on.

Phew it's now two o'clock and there is finally less costumers in the shop. This scene in front of me allows me to take a breather. Now I understand why Ally would always call this place a Black Friday whenever the weekend comes. At the mention of Ally, I couldn't help but smile towards myself. Meanwhile my eyes noticed from the comer of my eyes a teenage costumer at the cashier table. I walked towards the back of the cashier in a fast pace before giving out a smile towards the girl across from me. My eyes looked down at the music sheet in front of me and I was surprise with what this girl was listening to. Just one look at the tittle and I knew she wanted to major in music.

"The Carousel Waltz by Rodgers & Hammerstein… what an excellent choice. Did you know they were considered the best partners in the history of music?" I commented towards the girl with joy and excitement.

The girl's blue eyes looked at me with happiness as she gave out a smile. The sixteen year old responded back towards me with what she knows about these two excellent men. But to be honest I wasn't really interested in what she had to say. My head just nodded to tell her that I agreeing with what she was saying as my hands reached down towards the top shelf of the cashier desk. I picked up a plastic bag and a shiny red bag reappears in front of me. My hands opened up the object before putting the three sheets of music into the bag. At the second I finish packing, my ears picked up a clicking sound of high heels against the gray title floor of the music store.

Slowly my head looks up as my eyes look behind the inpatient teenage girl. Right there at the entrance of Sonic was a petite woman. I closed my eyes for a second and reopen them to make sure that I wasn't seeing an illusion. The woman sure is definitely there. As I continued to look at her, I couldn't help but feel like this white skin tone lady was someone I knew. This woman's dark brown eyes shine with happiness just like Ally's would, whenever she was having a great day. Wait no Austin you shouldn't think that way about this woman in front of you. She isn't your best friend! But then again why is it that her small nose and features are like Ally's?

My hands slowly handed the costumer her bag as I murmured a good bye. From the corner of my eyes I saw the girl giving me a how rude face expression before walking away. I know I should have stop my gaze at the woman coming towards me and apologies to the teenager for my rude service but then again my body just froze like a Popsicle. This gorgeous woman is wearing an expensive dress and high heels meanwhile her dark brown wavy hair trailed down into an ombre color of curls.

In the back of my mind, I kept telling me that this confident woman wasn't Ally. The reason why I tell myself this is because for the longest time that I have known Ally, she only wore a floral dresses, jean vests and flats every day. And this young lady right in front of me is wearing some sort of Maxi Dress in one solid color…red. Plus Ally swore that she would never dye her hair.

"Austin do you know what dye has… chemicals. I would never want to do that to my hair."

A smile came towards the surface of my face as Ally's comment pops up from the back of my mind.

"Hello Austin. Are you busy?"

I snap out of my thoughts when that cheerful tone came towards my ears. My heart stops for a second as I tried to catch my breath.

The woman gave out a little chuckle at my reaction before adding," I see you are having a bad hair day."

Her left hand reaches up towards my bangs and that when it hit me. This woman in front of me is Ally.

A cough was the only responses I could give towards my best friend as she brushed her small hand against my hair. Ally gave me a concern look, but before she could say anything towards me, I quickly turned around and signal my other employ to come over. A curly dark brown hair man came rushing over towards me with concern look on his face. I guess my look was some sort of look of horror but how do you except a guy to feel when he wasn't except the love of his life to come back to Sonic Boom.

"Mr. Moon is everything alright?"

The twenty year old man asked me as he hands me a water bottle. In an instant my hand grabs for the bottle before opening it up in a fast pace. I drank more than half of the substance inside the bottle before feeling my brain explode with many questions. I shake the questions out of my mind as I try my hardest to calm the fuck down. A loud sigh of relief comes out of my lips before gently putting the bottle down on top of the black desk counter.

"Andrew! Can you look the store up tonight? I apparently have unexpected guest here. "

I asked in a hoarse tone as I tried to keep a serious face on. The man Andrew looked behind me to see the woman in the red dress before nodding a yes in an understanding expression. My tense body calms down a little as he started to settle down in front of the cashier.


	3. Chapter 2

Is this really happening or am I dreaming? I kept asking myself as I prepared myself for the truth. My left ankle went across my right ankle as my body turn around to face the front of the store. In front of my light honey cone brown eyes laid the one and only owner of my heart… Ally Dawson. She came towards me in slow motion as the awkward silence took over the atmosphere. A few seconds pass by and then I see her arms circle around the air between us. But before she could get any closer towards my own body I put my hand out for her to shake. We looked down at our actions and noticed what the other person wanted to do as a gesture. And so we decided to change our position in five minutes. Ally now has her hand out in front of he to shake as she waited for me to return the gesture meanwhile I was about to put my arms around her body. After seeing this reaction, Ally and I couldn't help but let out a chuckle.

"Don't you think it is funny how we can't agree on how to greet one another?

She commented towards me as she gave me one of her genuine smiles. Seeing her pearl white teeth caused my hear tot beat faster by the second."

I nodded with agreement as I add on, "Hey Ally I have an idea. But I am going to need you to follow my lead."

The young lady in front of me nodded her head in agreement as she waited for me to show her my grand idea. I took a breath in and out as my shaking hand comes out to give her a handshake. A mixture of confusion and pain started to surface on Ally's small face meanwhile her own hand went up towards mine to return the gesture. Once her right hand was in the palm of my left hand, I pulled her arm closer to my own body causing her body to move towards mine. But before her body could fully make contact with mine, I wrap my arms around her body and embraced her into a welcome back hug gesture.

A big sigh of relief came out of her mouth as her tense body started to relax under my body. Feeling her chin fit perfectly against my right shoulder, and having her breathe down the back of my neck made me feel like I wasn't alone anymore. Yes, I would be lying to myself if I said that I didn't miss her hugs because the truth is, I always dreamed about how I would greet Ally whenever she came back. I guess what I am trying to say is that my number one reason why I stayed here in Mimi is because I knew that Ally was going to come back to her roots.

"Austin I miss you so much…"

I heard Ally say towards me in one breath. From hearing her tone of voice, I knew she was trying to prevent herself from having a meltdown. We remove ourselves from each other embrace as we gave each other sincere smiles.

"Let's go somewhere private and talk."

I said softly towards her as I grab her hand with excitement. Ally gave out a panic expression at my reaction as she immediately removes her hand from my own. It hurt like a ton of bricks to be rejected by the girl of my dreams but the expression of her face caused me to feel concern. Just by seeing her panic face turn into serous stricken face expression told me that Ally had something to tell me. But yet again she still didn't know how to say it. Ally's fearful eyes examine my face expression before having her top teeth bite down on her bottom lip. I was a little bit confused about her way of acting nervous. The reason why is because whenever she was nervous she would always grab a piece of her hair and bit on it. But my guesses are that she stopped the bad habit and pick up another.

"Austin before we go anywhere else… I have something to tell you."

Ally said towards me in the best way she can. I just nodded my head for her to continue. Instead of saying something to me, Ally puts up her left hand up in between the distance she created in front us and I notice someone on it. My eyes refocused on the sliver band on her left hand index finger and I felt myself catching my breath. Before a confuse expression could take over my face, Ally turns turn the ring over and I swear my day just turn from happiness to shock. There on her finger laid an engagement ring and this proposal ring wasn't from me.

You're engaged!" I said out loud towards her while trying not to choke on my words.

Ally was about to tell me the obvious answer but I wasn't listening to what she was saying. My right hand grabs her left hand closer to me so that I could have a better look at her ring. The ring itself was about 5,000 grand, which gave me the feeling that this asshole was filthy rich. The shape of the big diamond is made out of nine princess-cut diamonds. They were put together to make one big princess-cut diamond. Surrounding these diamonds were six white gold arches. Each arch is covered by three or four round shape sapphires. The blue in the sapphires showed that each gem was perfectly cut. On both sides of the flower style ring was a row of four round diamonds. Great I lost Ally to a self-absorb jerk.

In this moment I was speechless but not in happiness or sorrow. It is more like I wasn't sure how to respond back towards the news I received. Yes I was happy that Ally was back from New York. I just wasn't excepting her to come out of the blue and well... engaged. Now here comes a fact about this situation. No best guy friend likes to hear that the love of their life is no longer available for them to hold. Don't get me wrong, we as guys are all happy for our best girl-friends. It is just that we tend to believe that their happiness was meant to belong with us and no one else. But then again we don't know any more because we find out that they are engaged. It hurts me so much to know that Ally didn't realized how much I love her when we were in high school. But now I just think she is never going to see what I can offer her.

"Austin is everything alright. You look so pale white. Please say something back, you know how much I hate the silence. I knew I should have not told- "

I snap out of my thoughts when I heard Ally's voice rambling on about what she felt. Struggling as I am to not show how much I am hurting inside, I started to change my expression from a death shock look into a cheerful fake smile as a force out laugh.

"Ally Calm down. You're rambling on. Man Ally you don't need to worry that much about me. I was just shocked about the news…. that all!"

Ally's scared and concern face expression changes to relief as she responds back, "Sorry about that Austin. It's just that I have never seen you looking like… the end of the world is coming. Plus I know that I haven't spent time with you these past years but I know all your reactions.-"

Another chuckle came out my mouth as I put my hands on top of her shoulders before interpreting her by saying, "ALLY TAKE A BREATH!"

Ally started to take a breath in and out as she allowed herself clam down. The smile on my face started to grow bigger as I looked at her in awe. Ally is still the same person that I knew when we were in high school. For some reason I thought for sure I lost her. Well whatever is left of her of course. Ally caught my looking at her but I decided I turned away from her. My eyes started to look around the room as Ally looked up at me with a confuse face expression. Seeing that there was an awkward silence between us, I decided to comment towards her what any guy friend would say to their best friend.

"Congratulations Ally on your proposal! So who's the lucky guy?"

Ally gave out an excited shriek as she responds back, "Oh Jack and I been together for about two years. He and I meet at the front of my apartment."

As she was about to continue on I cut her off by commenting back, "Dose your dad know about Jack and you?"

In the back my mind I was excepting her to say yes but her answer surprised me.

"Well he hasn't heard about it. I am not sure how to tell my father about the news."

I couldn't believe that Jackass didn't ask for her father's blessing. What type of guy dose that? If any guy wants to propose to the love of their life, aren't they supposed to go out of their way to meet the father and tell him that he wants his daughter's hand of marriage?

"That is one strange answer I have ever heard you say Ally! I always thought Jacka- … I mean doesn't your fiancé supposed to ask your father for his blessing?" I said towards Ally without letting her know what I think about her future husband.

Ally rolled her eyes before responding back in annoyance, "Austin in this century, men don't ask the father of the bride for the blessings anymore. That only happens in the movies."

I respond back in a murmur," Well if it was me… I would have asked for your father's blessing in a heartbeat."

My eyes almost went wide eye meanwhile I waited to see what Ally's reaction would be from my comment. Ally looked down at her dress as she decided not to show how she felt about it. I mentally face palm myself as I tried to look like I didn't say anything.

"So do you want to go somewhere to eat? "I asked in a cheerful and yet nervous tone.

Nice save Austin, I say to myself as I waited for her response. Ally looked back up at me as her right hand went up for me to hold. My hand grabs it in an instant before looking back at her with an awkward smile.

"Yeah let's go. We got lots of catching up to do. And we aren't going home until we know everything about each other" Ally respond back towards me with determination.

Typical Allyson Dawson behavior, I said towards myself as I lead her out the door and into the rest of the world.


	4. Chapter 3

Melody Diner is the best restaurant in Miami Mall. All the servers do is sing out the specials of the week and then sing- ask us what we want to drink before going back to work. This place is where Ally and I go to back in high school days. Melody Diner was the one hang out that we went to whenever she was on her lunch break. In fact its the place where we meet our friend Cassidy. I remember I used to have a baby crush on her when we first came here. Cassidy's voice is a raspy R&B voice and it sounds so great when she hits the high notes. Every time she sings my body starts to shiver and at one time I wanted to sing a duet with her. That was of course before I started to date her. As the time passes us by my so called crush for my ex-girlfriend Cassidy was over when I started to realize that I have feelings for Ally.

This restaurant is a modern style look and has music symbols all over the place. The four walls of Melody Dinner are all painted light blue, and the floor is cover with light gray titles. Surrounding the walls are rows of shiny dark purple cushion booths. In the middle of the two facing booths is a black table. Besides the tables and booths there wasn't really much in the restaurant. On the walls there is couple of pictures of the most famous celebrities. A few examples would be the most famous picture of "The Beatles". It is the picture where they walk on the crosswalk of Abbey Road. The second example is across the room. It is a picture frame of the beach boys holding on to a long surf board.

"Hello Austin it's nice to see you." sang the manager of Melody Dinner.

I greeted the overweight nineteen year woman with a smile as I sang back, "Thank You Mindy. Look who is here with me this time."

Mindy looked over across from me and saw Ally seating there. She gave out a kind smile as she gently places her hand on top of Ally's left shoulder.

"Why! It's been a long time since we've see you here Miss Ally Dawson. This boy over here has been on the depression boat ever since you left to New York."

In the back of my mind I was giving Mindy a death glare meanwhile Ally looked at me with wide eyes at the comment.

"Is that true Austin?" Ally asked with curiosity as she snaps her head towards my direction.

My face turns red from the embarrassment and attention I was getting. Meanwhile a guilty expression started to take over my face. I gazed into her eyes as she did the same. In that moment I noticed that there was something in her eyes that I have never noticed before. She was hoping for me to confess to her my feelings. Meanwhile another part of her felt guilty for having to hear this statement from someone else. Our eye contact doesn't breaks until I make up some excuse for my behavior.

"I-I was worried that you would never come back. And that maybe I would never see you again."

Ally looked down at the menu that Mindy has handed out a second ago as her face started to show disappointment.

"Oh well, you could have come to New York."

She started to say towards me but Ally stops her comment. Anger took over me as my hands started to form fists. Out of all the people in the universe, Ally knew very well that I could never have enough money to go to New York and come back. I barely have enough to pay for a house that I recently brought three months ago. How can my best friend except me to leave without having someone to run the store! She of course also knew that I could ask her father but that is out of the question.

In that instant I wanted to snap at her and say how come she didn't come back to visit us when she graduated from NYU? But that of course would be a foolish statement because she just proved me wrong. After all she is here and she is right in front of me. The last thing we both needed is for us to have an argument when we barely reunited.

"I am so sorry Austin. I should have not said that." Ally responded towards me with sincerity.

I nodded my head in agreement as my hands start to unfold themselves.

"Let's pretend this didn't happen and let's talk like we used to." I responded back towards her in a neutral tone.

A small smile came across her face meanwhile her big brown eyes shine with happiness.

"Austin Moon! You are the best friend anyone could have. How did I end up so lucky to have you in my life?" Ally praised towards me as she put her hand on top of my own.

At that moment I wanted to tell her that it is the other way around. My life is nothing without her but I can't say that out loud. It would be like the most un-appropriate thing to say to her. Get it through your head Austin, she's taken, I said towards myself. Ally gave me one of her special smiles as she waits patiently for me respond back. So I decided not to make a comment back and made a joke about her comment.

A small smile trigger from my lips as I respond back in a sarcastic tone, "What can I say. Austin Moon is the best and you know it."

Ally gave out a laugh as her left hand goes up towards the side of my shoulder and hits it. The hit didn't impact me but to feel Ally's touch, I would do anything to pretend it hurt.

"Ouch Ally you didn't have to hit me!" I responded back in pain.

Ally rolled her eyes at me as she responded, "OH please Austin I didn't even hit you hard. I swear you act like a baby sometimes."

Yeah I am your baby, I said towards myself as a server came towards us.

I looked at Ally as she orders her meal. After finishing her order, she turns to look at me and gave me her million dollar smile. I gave out a dopey smile before looking at the server and ordering my own meal. As soon has the waiter left, I couldn't help but analyzed her features. Ally still had her child-like face and those oh so beautiful brown eyes that I love. But the only difference from before and now is that she is now wearing red lipstick and eyeliner on her upper eye lid. Oh God do I wish I could spend my day just looking at her. But then again I knew I couldn't because she would freak out. Ally raised one of her eyebrows up as her eyes looked back at me with a self-conscious expression.

"What is it Austin? Is there something on my face?" Ally asked as her right hand goes up towards her face.

"Ally… you don't have anything on your face. It is just that- never mind." I said towards her as I looked down towards my left hand.

Ally's soft hand instantly goes towards my chin and gentle raises my head up to meet hers. A sudden shiver ran through my body as her warm right hand gently rubs again the left side of my face. Ally gave me a concern look but I tried my hardest no to show my emotions. Ally seemed to let it go but she didn't remove her hand from my face. My eyes closed for a second as she started touch my whole face. It's as if she wanted to see if I was really there in front of her.

"Awe you two look so cute" I heard our new waitress say towards us.

My eyes went wide-eyed open as Ally instantly removes her hand off me. Disappointment took over me but I just pretended like nothing happen. Ally and I kept quiet for a while as our waitress puts down our orders in front of us. Throughout the time eating, I could help it but look at her from the corner of my eyes. Ally of course caught me looking at her. But before she could completely make eye contact with me, I would look down at my own meal. Once she returns to her original action, my eyes would wonder up to see her blushing. I must admit it's weird to see her blush at my actions but at that moment I was sort of felt happy that I was the cause of her bushing.

Each and every second of silence, my hands got this urge to touch her. In the back of my mind, I didn't want this moment to end but I knew our time together won't last. After all Jackass is coming here tomorrow. And I know for a fact that I won't be able to handle seeing him touching her like I want to touch her. But for the sake of Ally's happiness I will do anything. God that woman is going to be the death of me.

"So what do you want to talk about Ally-Cat?" I ask her before pushing my empty plate towards the side of the table.

Ally did the same reaction with her plate before putting both of her hands flat down on top of the table. My hands were so tempted to just touch those small hands of hers again but I was able to prevent myself from doing anything drastic. After all she might take my actions the wrong. And the last thing I needed to do is make the situation more complicated or awkward as I did at Sonic Boom.

"Austin, there is something I need to ask you." Ally commented towards me with a worried expression.

A curious face expression took over my face before responding back, "What is it?"

Ally bit her bottom lip and I felt like my mind going crazy with what she was doing to me. That face expression she making, gives her the look of a sexy bitch and it is so turning me on right now. Dam these stupid harmonies. Clam down Austin, I whisper towards myself as I waited for her responses.

"Before we start talking… I want to you know that the reason why I am asking you this question. The reason why is because you are the only person that I hold dear to my heart. Plus you're the only best friend I got." Ally started to say towards me in a fast pace.

A chuckle came out of my lips before commenting towards her," Ally you need to stop rambling on fast and just tell me what you need. I promise I won't freak out. Plus I am here for you. And you don't need to feel nervous around me. I am just Austin Moon, your best friend. So go on and ask."

Ally took a breath in and out as she asks slowly, "Will you be my Man of Honor."

"Wait! Isn't it called Maid of Honor?" I asked her with a confuse expression on my face as I pick up my water and took a sip.

Ally was now sitting at the edge of her seat before stating back, "Maid of honor is the original tittle. That is if you are going to have a girl play the role. But since I am asking you, I thought it should be called Man of Honor. Besides …it's not like our story would end up like Patrick Dempsey's character Tom and Michelle Monaghan's character Hannah from Maid of Honor. We don't even love each in that way. Am I right?"

After hearing that statement about Maid of Honor, I felt myself about to release the substance I had inside my mouth. At that spilt second, I turn to face outwards and in that instant I spit out everything. A shriek came from my left side and Ally and I looked at each other with panic face expression as our eyes followed the direction from where the sound came from. There in the side of our table is a disgusted server, who was trying to figure out if she really got hit by mouth wash water.

Instantly my face got super red as I wipe my mouth clean with my napkin. The next thing I did was apologized to the teenager through my coughs but the server didn't say anything. Instead she just put down the recite for our meals on the table before stomping away from us. Ally and I turned towards each other again. I believe I still had the panic look on my face meanwhile Ally tried her hardest not to laugh.

I paid for the meal in a hurry in hopes that the girl wouldn't attack me before rushing Ally and I out the door. Once we were out the door, we both turned to each other and started cracking up. Oh my gosh that is the most embarrassing thing, that has EVER happen to me. I have to admit it was funny but I also felt so bad for the girl. So before leaving I hand the server a huge tip.

"Austin… did you really just did that?" Ally said towards me as she tried to calm herself down.

Ashamed as I was about the whole situation, I nod my head before adding. "Let's not mention it again. I feel a little bit bad for the girl."

Ally gives me a smile of hers before asking, "So what did you do. Because knowing you for the longest time, you always seem make it up to girls."

A grin came across my face as I admit it to her by saying, "I gave her a twenty dollar tip."

"Awe Austin, you're such a sweetheart. Ally comment towards me with an awe expression on her face.

I shrug my shoulders up as I before stating back in agreement "Yep… that's me."

Ally let out another small chuckle of hers as I saw her thinking about something, inside that little head of hers.

"Ally what is that you want to ask me?" I respond towards her in a teasing tone.

"Well…." She started to say in a high pitch voice.

"Wow that's one long well." I said towards her in a sarcastic-teasing tone.

Ally just smiled at my comment as she continues on with her thought.

"Since you are a great gentleman now; does that mean you have a girlfriend? Because I bet you a million dollars that any girl would love to own that big heart of yours."

I gave her a playful hurtful expression as I defend myself by saying," Hey I have always been a gentleman. And to answer your question the answer is no."

The last part of my sentence sounded like I was somehow sad and depressed. Ally seemed to realize that she hit a touchy subject and allowed it to slide.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to…"

She started to say towards me with pity but I cut her pity statement by responding back with sincerity,

"No…. I think I should tell you. I really don't want a family. Well not when I only have time for the music store and writing lyrics on the weekends."

Ally was looking down on the floor as we started to walk. When she hears me say that I am composing songs she looks straight at me with shock expression.

"Did- did you say writing lyrics?"

Ally said towards me with bewilderment. I just nod my head with happiness as we start to gaze into each other's eyes. In that split second I lead in and Ally just looks at me with love and affection. Just when we were about ten cementers away from each other's lips, her cellphone starts to ring. Her eyes went wide eyed as my body moves away from her personal space.

"Is everything alright Ally?" I asked her in concern as I mentally face palm myself for almost kissing her.

Ally recovers her expression by smiling at me as she states back, "Yeah. It's just that I totally forgot that Jack told me that he was flying in late today. He just text me and so I got to go and get him. I am so sorry Austin for doing this to you. I hope you are not upset."

Pretending to not sound sad or upset about the distraction that happen is something I was never good at. But right now I have no choice but accept faith and lie to my best friend by sounding like everything is cool.

"No I am not upset. And yeah I will see you. But when exactly am I seeing you again?"

Ally's brown eyes started to shine with happiest as she responds back, "OH! How does this Sunday sound? "

A smile starts to form on my face as I state back, "Is that a date or what?"

Ally just rolled her eyes as she comments back. "No but I will let you know the details of our day tomorrow."

With that she walks away from me and I just watch her leave.


	5. Chapter 4

Headache and having my head pounding was all I felt when I woke up this morning in my home. My tired red eyes were looking around my bedroom. The placed looked like someone robbed the place. In every place I looked there were clothes all over the place. Every single fragile object that was in this room was now broken into tiny little pieces. And nothing I did was going to fix them. As I continued to look round my master bedroom, I noticed that my checks were stained with dried tears meanwhile my right hand was hurting very badly. At first I was confused as to why it hurts so much until I started to think about what happen last night after Ally's departure.

The night before….

The first thing I did when I got into my house was yelled at the top of my lungs. If I was still living at that dirty small apartment nearby the music store, I would have probably had my neighbors yelling at me to shut up from the noise I was making. My heart was hurting so much meanwhile my body tried to calm down before having a heart attack. My right hand goes up towards the nearest wall and I started to punch it. With all my strength within me, I hit the wall until my hand went numb. For sure I thought that by taking out all my anger on the wall I would feel better but instead it just made me restless. So in that instant, I found my hands grabbing every single article in the room and started throwing them across the room. My feet went to every room and threw whatever it is my hands could get a hold on. Once I felt better I looked around my messy house and realized what happen.

'I LOST HER!" I said out loud towards the empty house.

The pain from my voice echoed throughout the walls and bounced right back up towards my ears. The tone of my voice showed my future and it told me that I will never be able to live with myself. My body falls down onto the nearest wall and I literally start bawling. It's been the longest time since I have ever cried over someone or anything that is important to me but I couldn't help it. In my past few years I was sure that everything in my life was starting to become better. And that no matter what would happen I would be the luckiest guy in the world. But then out of the blue someone had to bring me back to reality.

In high school I should have told Ally how I felt. It should have been me putting on that ring on her small fragile finger and making her dream come true. Not some jackass who she has just meet these two past years in New York. In the bottom of my heart, I sense that this guy didn't truly love Ally. The reason why I think this is because of his actions. Each man that I have grown up with has all asked his bride's father for his blessing. But as I continued to think this over in my head, Ally's response kept on coming back to the front of my mind.

"Austin in this century men don't ask the father of the bride for the blessing anymore. That only happens in the movies."

Maybe Ally was right. In this century there hasn't been a time where I have seen a guy going up to the woman that he loves and kiss her to death. Well of course without having to accept the fact that maybe the woman of their dreams would reject them. Or see a certain boyfriend bringing home small gifts to their girlfriends, each and every day whenever they see them. No instead we see either jealousy between partners and marriages ending with divorce. In my life I promised my grandmother that if I do fall in love that I would reserve my love for that special woman and that's it. If I was in Jackass' shoes, I would have probably give Ally sticky notes telling her how much she makes me feel. And then on late nights whenever I come back from the music story, I would hand her a circus rose.

A smile started to form in my face because I remembered Ally telling me that the circus rose was her favorite flower. We went to prom together and before making any plans on the dress and color choice, I asked her what her favorite flower was. When she told me the name of the rose I found myself wanting to see what made this flower so special. Plus I wanted to know why this certain flower was able to captures the heart of my best friend. That night I looked it up on the internet and I must say…. it is the most beautiful rose that I have ever seen in my life. The rose itself express how I felt about Ally and I couldn't help but order the corsage instantly.

The rose's petals itself has three different shade of colors. In the center of the rose is the yellow color which means the color of friendship. The middle color is an orange color which means the desire to be more. And at the tips of the flower was the color red. Now I won't say what the color red means because everyone knows that it means I love you. Getting this flower and giving it to the girl of my dreams helped me in two ways. It was able to express how I felt about Ally and it her favorite flower. It is truly funny how one flower can make any girl glow with happiness! I remember my hands were shaking like crazy meanwhile I put the flower corsage on her wrist. In the memory I felt hope that maybe she might like me back. Ally's smile went straight from her lips to her eyes and that is when I realized that even if she didn't love me back. I will always be the number one important person in her life.

Once I finished that memory of prom, I notice that in my hand was hold onto a double X beer bottle. My head looked at where I was and saw ten beers in front of me. Each one lay on the kitchen table and not once did I take my eyes off the new empty bottles of glasses. In that split second I felt myself wanting to call Ally and confess to her my feelings for her. In that split second I took out my phone from the jeans of my pants and dialed in the lock code. My fingers grasp a good hold on to the IPhone and was about to call her. When I was so close to dialing her number, my mind kept telling me that she didn't need this from me. What she need what her best friend. Not more problems. I mental nodded in agreement as I thought of my previous thought of Jackass.

If my instincts are right about Jackass not being in love with Ally than I would for sure be able to show the girl of my dreams that he wasn't made for her. The question is how do you do that without having Ally figuring out that you love her?

Once I had my emotions figured out and knew what happen the night before, I was able to think of a plan on revealing to Ally that Jackass wanted something more from her than just love. It amazes me that I am here cleaning my house and thinking of an evil plan to separate the girl of my dreams from her fiancé when I haven't even met the guy yet. My guess is that because my love for Ally is more powerful than any other relationship I have or had in my life. At great example of how much Ally affects me within would be that I have been called the over protected brother in our relationship, since freshman year of high school. It didn't bother me because I knew I could keep my eyes on her and she didn't know that I like her.

As I continued to think over what my strategy was for the night my phone goes off. I snap out of my thoughts meanwhile the song Crazy 4 U by R5 starts to fill up my empty house. The picture of Ally and me hugging each other on graduation day appears on my ID contact. In that split second I pick up my IPhone from the small cabinet desk and answer it.

"Hello." I responded in a tiresome tone.

A giggle came from the other line as the female voice states towards me," Did I wake you up?"

A smile appears on my face as I responded truthfully, "No, I am just cleaning my house."

"You have a house?" Ally asked before hearing a gasp coming out from her.

I let out a laugh before stating back, "Well, I would have told you that last night but you had to leave remember?"

"Austin!" she responded back with guilt.

Before Ally could say another word, I cut her off by commenting back, "No you don't have to say anything. I am sorry about bringing that up. It is uncalled for on my part. Besides you had to go. I am not blaming you for anything."

Ally didn't have to say anything because I knew I hurt her. Darn me and having issues of sharing her with Jackass.

"Speaking of yesterday… we are going to have to change the plans for Sunday."

I hear Ally state towards me from the other line. Confusion took over my face as I thought to myself, did I just hear right."

"Come again? "I stated toward her making sure I catch her response.

Ally let out a sigh as she thinks of a way to tell me what she needs to say.

"Tomorrow I am going to tell my father the news about my engagement to Jack."

My forehead started to scrunch up as I respond back," Then why do I have to be there?"

A desperate sigh comes out of her side of the line as she adds, "Because I don't think I can do it without you there. Besides it's not every day a daughter goes up towards her father and says out of the blue, Oh hey dad nice to meet you. By the way I am now engaged and this is my fiancé."

Shock expression took over my face as I realized that Ally put herself in a sticky mess. And now she needs someone to help her fix this mess she made. Good the things I do for love.

"Okay I will be there. But that is only because I promised you in the past that I would be there whenever you needed me." I comment back towards her with a smile.

Ally gave out a shriek and awe tone before responding back," Awe you remember the promise we made when we were in sixth grade. You are such a sweetheart Austin. I just still don't understand why you don't have a girlfriend?"

Maybe because the girl I love is taken I heard my mind speak towards me. I can't say that, I said towards myself. My mind responds back saying, well; you keep telling yourself that you want to get closer. Plus you keep putting yourself down and saying that when she came backs you would tell her how you feel. Right now will be the only great time to tell her before she walks down that alter and have youself stay on the side lines, as the best friend says her vows towards another guy.

"Austin! Are you still there?"

I snap out of my mind fight as I heard Ally asking me this question in concern.

"Ally there is something I have been meaning to tell you. I hope you don't freak out in what I am going to say…."

My right hand slowly goes up behind my neck as I continue on, "It's going to take a lot of guts in me to say this."

Ally started to freak out from the other line as she responds back towards me in a freak out tone," Austin what is it? You are freaking me out over here!"

My throat went dry and I couldn't help but chicken out. Instead of saying what I wanted to ask her, I decided to ask this one question, "Is Cassidy going to be there?"

Ally let out a giggle of relief as she slowly responds back, "Oh Austin! I know you don't like Cassidy after you're break up with her. But I need one extra girl for my court."

Shock wouldn't be the right word to tell you about Cassidy. Ever since the day she realized my feelings for Ally… she's been trying to get me to look at her like I did before. Just when I thought things couldn't get worse, I have to be in the same room as my crazy ex. So not only do I have to find out what Jackass plans are with my Ally, I now have to keep Cassidy in her place.

"Great!" I started to say in a high pitch voice as I started to freak out about meeting Cassidy.

Ally let out an awkward giggle as she comments towards," Austin you do know she will be there tomorrow right."

"Huh!" I respond back with a more freaked out tone.

"Well, Jack said it would be great to meet everyone within these eight months." Ally stated to say before adding, "So we are having a little meet and great with everyone before stating our planning of my wedding."

When I heard her say that she is planning the wedding and getting married in eight months. I swear my heart soar with hope as a smile appeared on my face. Maybe my luck has change.


	6. Chapter 5

My honey cone eyes wonder up towards the one story pinna colored panel house in front of me. The roof of the house looks like two medium size open grey books that were lying face down on top of each other. The position of the bottom part of the roof top is pointing in the direction of east to west. Meanwhile the top part of the roof is pointing north and south. In the middle of the triangle section of the top roof is the shutter where the attic is located.

My eyes continued to analyze the old house in front of me as my focus point goes straight towards the front patio. The patio has four white painted wooden poles that are connected to one another by the bottom part of the roof. In between the poles and the roof are arches of white painted wooden victorian architecture. The structure of the two out of the four poles is connected with each other at the bottom by a white wooden rail. The rail bars are in the shape of a baby's cradle and I could help but feel myself happy to see the house. Inside the porch area are two white wooden painted frame windows with navy colored shutters on each side of the house's front walls. In the middle of the window is a modern style wooden door that is painted with the color of coffee espresso.

My feet walked onto of the concrete pathway in front of me as the front door came into closer view. Each step I took was a little bit of a bittersweet memory for me. It's been five years since I have been here. And yet I can't seem to find out why I haven't been able to come here. My guess is that Ally's house brought so many memories for me that I couldn't come back here without having to miss all those times we spend together. The last time I was in this house was when Ally's family threw her the congratulation party for getting into MUNY.

Of course Mr. Dawson hasn't complained about me not coming over anymore. The reason why is because he out of all people knew my feelings for his only daughter. In fact he would never let me sleep over since the beginning of our freshman year of high school. It's strange how he was able to figure out my feels for his princess before I knew how I felt. But that still didn't stop Mr. Dawson from treating me like the son he never had. Karissa June, Ally's step mother, on the other hand was always able to persuade Mr. Dawson to allow me to hang out with Ally. If it weren't for Karissa and her ways of having me spend dinner nights with them. Ally and I wouldn't have gotten closer without having to sneak out all the time.

A smile spread through my lips as I remember Karissa saying how adorable my relationship is with Ally. Once she told me during dinner time that she wants to be the wedding planner for our wedding. Ally and I let of a ridiculous laugh at her comment because we never saw each other as more then friends meanwhile Mr. Dawson let out a grunt because he didn't want Karissa to go on about his daughter future wedding. If there is one thing I learned about spending time with the family is that Mr. Dawson is the cheapest guy I have ever met.

"Austin, thank goodness you are here!" I heard Ally say towards me with relief.

My mind snaps out of the memory lane as I looked at the stressed out brunette hair woman in front of this house's door entrance.

A chuckle came out of my mouth as I respond back, "Let me guess an awkward moment between your father and your fiancé! Am I right?"

Ally gave me a guilty frown as she adds on, "It's so bad that I don't know how to cut the tension."

"That bad is it?" I responded back with a concern face expression.

Ally nodded her head yes right away as she comments back," I feel like I am suffocating with the silence and the death glares my father is giving him. Do you think there is a way you can tell him something to get him to give Jack a change."

My left hand went behind the back of my neck as I comment back towards her, "I am not sure! Your father is really hard to crack. But beside that situation, have you told your father the news about your marriage proposal?"

Ally looked down towards her figure nails and that is when I realized that she didn't tell him yet. Oh great just what I needed, more problems on my plate! Not only do I have to avoid Karla and find out what Jackass is up to. Ally wants me to find a way around in telling her father the news of his daughter's wedding. I swear the person who created us just really wants me to die before the age of thirty.

"Gez Ally! Do I have to do everything for you?" I say towards her in a desperate sigh as I tried to control my emotions from coming up to the surface.

Ally gave me one of her puppy pouts as she starts to beg," Oh please Austin. You know I have been trying to figure out a way to him. But you know that the negative side of things always makes it so hard for me."

I let out a sigh of defeat as I respond back with sarcasm," Let's get this party start!"

Ally gave me a shriek of excitement as she walks over towards me and gives me a hug. The smell of her perfume Japanese Cherry Blossoms enters the inside of my nose and I can't help but feel like everything will turn out right. We removed ourselves from each other's embrace before giving each other reassuring smiles. The next thing Ally does is puts her hand out for me to hold. Instantly I accept this hand gesture as we walk side by side towards the house of terror

Ally and I walked through the front door of the house without knowing what to except. One look and I stop dead in my tracks. Right there in front of me wasn't the house that I knew five years ago. In the past time I have been here there were two walls that divided each room from one another. And now that I am here again there is an open house concept between the kitchen, living room and dining room. My mouth went wide open as I looked at the kitchen's new island counter. Speaking of the kitchen there is a laminate dark blue counter top with dark wooden cabinets. The wall between the top and bottom cabinets has now blue and green titles. All the appliances are stainless and were place at different areas of the kitchen. I must admit this isn't my type of style but the place look so put together.

Another thing that got my attention was the décor of the dining room. The person who designed this place did such great work that they were able to make the use of the nook area. This person decided to have one of the ends of a new dark brown wooden table lean against the nook's wall. My eyes look downward towards the matching wooden chairs and noticed the sliver wear is placed neatly in front of each chair. The more I looked at the neatly order open area the more I wanted to know who re-decorated it. Ally seemed to be a mind reader because s the next comment she said towards me blown me away.

"I see you like the work I did in the house. I know it's not like Hilary from Love it and List it, but my father was more than willing to let me decorate the home."

Wide eye and shock at her statement was the only two things I was able to do due, because she just made me speechless. It never occurred to me that Ally took in her hobby, and took the task of changing the look of her father's house in one week. My eyes looked down towards the newly honey cone flooring where the awfully dark brown carpet was before and was able to find my voice again.

"Lils this place is awesome!" I exclaim towards my best friend with a big grin of my face.

Ally blushed at little at my comment before stating back with humility, "Now Austin I am not great of a home designer but I guess you can say that."

I gave Lils an expression that states back, are you serious, before stating back, "Lils I am not lying to you. This place is so astonishing… that I want to you to decorate my whole house."

Ally's dark brown eyes went wide eye as she states back," Are you serious!

I looked at her with a goofy smile as I respond back truthfully, "Ally you are amazing. I don't know how I lived these past five years without you."

"Awe Austin you are so sweet." Ally says towards me in a praised tone as she embraces me into a huge.

A huge grin comes upon my face as I hugged her back. I never wanted us to stop hugging each other, but of course Mr. Dawson just had to walk in on us.

"Oh Austin my boy; It's great to see." Mr. Dawson says towards me with glee as he makes his way towards us.

Ally and I got out of each other's arms in a fast reaction as we hoped that Mr. Dawson doesn't say anything about this to Jack when he sees him. Don't get me wrong I could care less about Jackass' feelings but for my best friend I did care about her feelings. Ally looked down at the floor with interested as my left hand goes up towards the back on my neck. Talk about an awkward situation.

"Hum Mr. Dawson, you aren't going to say anything about this, to Jack… right?" I asked him with a wide eyes expression as a guilty tone starts to form at the end of the sentence.

The middle age men with dark brown eyes and wavy brown gray hair gave me a smile that read out loud, he wasn't going to tell Jack. At that split moment I felt myself feeling relief as my shoulders started to relaxed.

"Speaking of the dog, where is he sweetheart? Don't tell him blow you off." Mr. Dawson says towards his daughter with distaste.

"Dad please behave! Besides Jack loves me, and you promised that once he came over, you would be nice to him. Oh and to answer your sarcastic question, no Jack didn't leave me. He just had to take care of some business. " Ally states back towards her father in a venom tone.

"I would sweetheart but I am telling you he is not the guy for one. Even Karissa thinks of him unlikely." he responded back towards her with a serious expression as he puts his right hand on top of my shoulder.

Ally let out a puff of anger before stating back, "So is that why she isn't here anymore? What a great role model of a mother she is. What's her excuse now? She had to take in more time for work. I swear dad, I think she is cheating on you."

Mr. Dawson ignored Ally's comment meanwhile I looked at her with bewilderment. I can't believe Ally talked back to her father with hurtful words. Out of all the times I have seen Ally hanging out with her father; I have never seen her talk back to him. Wow New York! You sure did make Ally into a person that she promised me she wouldn't turn into; a fake and heartless bitch. My eyes look at her for a second before looking over at Mr. Dawson and saw a hurtful expression written all over his tired face.

A pitiful expression takes over my face as I state back towards him in a whisper,"Mr. Dawson you know she didn't mean it."

Mr. Dawson didn't say anything towards my comforting words. Instead he gives me a look of I know before saying towards me, "Austin, can I talk to you in my office for a second."

A surprise and yet panic expression comes over my face as I responded back. "Hum. Yes of course Mr. Dawson. I will be right there.

Mr. Dawson gave out a huge smile without saying another word towards me and walked back out towards the small hall, which is located next to the kitchen area. Ally and I gave each other eye contact. A hurtful expression was still at the surface of my face as I give her the look that says, you really hurt your father's feelings. Ally seemed to understand the gesture I gave her and looked down guilty at the raw potatoes in the sink. We gazed at each other's eyes again for three second without saying a word towards each other. A few minutes passes by and she goes back to making the dinner for the night meanwhile my feet took me towards Mr. Dawson's office.


	7. Chapter 6 New and Old

Dear Readers if you haven't noticed I have fixed all of Closer so that it would look neat. So this chapter will have both new and old plot line. But before you read anything of this chapter you might was to read chapter 3 because there is something in there that wasn't there before. Well enjoy.

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It's been years since the last time I have been to Mr. Dawson's office. Not much has change within these small walls of this room; except for the family portrait of Mr. Dawson, Karissa, and Ally on the left side of the off-white walls. On the right side wall is a book case filled up entirely with old books that Ally and I had to read during our high school years as requirements for English. Meanwhile the rest of the wall is preoccupied by Ally's degrees from high school and college. In the center, facing the back wall is a rectangular shape window that has a great view of the back yard. In the middle of the whole room is where Mr. Dawson's red cherry black leather seat and a dark wooden desk are located. Not much of the desk's surface could be seen due to scattered bills, pens, and other important objects. On the opposite side of the desk is two chairs that look similar to his leather chair the size of the chairs are half the size of the main chair

Mr. Dawson was looking out towards Karissa's rose garden when he heard me close the white painted wood door of the office. My heart started to speed up as Mr. Dawson turned his body towards my direction. The wised men nodded his head towards one of the small seats in front of his desk as his expression told me to take a seat. My guess is that Mr. Dawson has something very important to tell me and it might be something to do with me. My adam's apple quivers a little as my feet obeys his command. My mouth opens up a little to say something towards Mr. Dawson but nothing comes out. Instead I closed my mouth and waited for Mr. Dawson to start his one and one conversation with me.

"Mr. Moon." He starts towards say to me in a profession tone as he continues on saying, "I suppose you would like to know the main reason why I have asked to you meet me here."

My head nods a yes as I respond back in a serious tone, "Yes Sir."

Mr. Dawson doesn't continue on. Instead he goes up towards his office door and looks outside his door, to see if there is someone eavesdropping in on the conversation. No one was out there behind the other wall and I hear a relief sigh come out his was. Once Mr. Dawson is satisfied with the outcome, Mr. Dawson pushes the door close before locking the door. I started to panic as I realized that Mr. Dawson wasn't happy about something, and I had a bad feeling that it has to do with the fact that Ally and I are treating one another as a couple then friends. Well I must confess I am treating her no different from the last time she was in this house.

"Mr. Dawson did I do something wrong." I ask in a high panic voice tone.

Mr. Dawson gives out a gleeful smile towards me before responding back," No you haven't Austin, but there is something I need you to do for me."

I just nodded my head, in a way to let him know that I am listening in to each word he is saying.

"How much do you love my daughter?" He states towards me with a serious face expression.

My head turns towards Ally's father direction with clueless expression by his out of the blue question.

"More than anything else in the world… Why do you ask?"

I comment back truthfully towards my father like figure. Mr. Dawson nodded his head in acceptance to my answer before stating back towards me, "Then you wouldn't mind if I ask you to protect her and to always keep an eye on her for me."

My forehead starts to scrunched up a little as I ask in a polite tone,"Mr. Dawson, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but what are you getting at Sir?"

Mr. Dawson looked at me with fearful brown eyes as he states back towards me, "I can't say much but I want you to protect her. I fill like she in danger and I won't be able to protect her."

Questions started to form in my mind as the information I was given was fully being process in the brain. The first question is; what kind of danger? The second question is; what is it that Mr. Dawson is hiding from me? The third question is; did Mr. Dawson say towards me that Ally's life is in danger?

Way back inside my gut I had a huge feeling that this situation has Ally's fiancé written all over it. The only question that stands out from all them is; what does this conversation have to do with Jack and Mr. Dawson's behavior? I mean it was obvious that something was bothering him about Jack and Ally's relationship. In fact I remember that when I came here Mr. Dawson gave an unapproved statement about how Jack isn't at her side. And now here he is with me alone, and he is acting like his only daughter's safety depends on me! Why do I feel like I just gotten myself into a sort of FBI work when I haven't even meet this guy.

"So what do you say, Will you protect Ally with your heart?" Mr. Dawson says towards me with a pleading face expression.

I change my train of thought as I say towards him, "For Ally, I will do anything?

Mr. Dawson gave out a relief sigh from my answer as he states towards me," Oh Thank you Austin. I have always admired your bravery for Ally's love."

Bravery what is he talking about? A confused expression took over my face, but before I could ask Mr. Dawson another question about this conversation; a shriek came from the kitchen area. Mr. Dawson and I looked at each other with panic face expressions as we run out the office door without saying another word. Relief took over my body, once I reached the destination where the female scream came from. Right there in front of me in the kitchen area was Ally. She was being splashed by a spray bottle meanwhile she is protecting herself from getting hit. A smile spread throughout my lips as I kept my gaze on her. Ally let out another laugh as she hits some sort of the blue eye man with a small kitchen towel. She continues this gesture towards the stranger in front of us without even noticing our presence.

In the moment of seeing this brown hair man; I felt my jaw tighten until my eyes took noticed of the distance between Ally and the man. The blue eye stranger was able to move away from the small green towel meanwhile giving Ally a teasing smile from seeing her failed attempt to get him back. They continued their small playful fight until the man suddenly noticed that Mr. Dawson and I were in the room. The stranger's joyful expression changes dramatically into a shy expression, as he stops what he is doing. Ally got her perfect shot at the man and was going to do a victory dance but stopped herself, when she notices that the man in front of her was looking behind her. Ally did a 180 turn, to see what caused her friend to act so indifferent.

"Oh Hi! I didn't see you there." Ally manages to say towards us as her cheeks turned into a rosy pink color.

"I am going to go." The man behind Ally says softly towards her before moving away from us.

Ally just nods her head in agreement before turning her attention back towards us.

"Dinner will be ready in about 20 minutes." She says towards her father softly as she gives him a sorry expression.

Mr. Dawson just gives her a proud smile as he states back, "Thank you Sweety, I hope everything goes well tonight."

Ally nods her head in agreement as her father comes towards her and hugs her. Ally turns her direction towards me and gives me an awkward sorry expression. I gesture back a nod that says not to worry about it and Ally gave me a relief smile as she turns her direction back towards her father. A smile returned to my face as I look at the father and daughter moment in front of me. In the back of my mind I thought of how much I wish my parents were so supported with the outcome of my actions like Ally's dad is. But I knew that no matter what I did in my life, they would never be proud of me. I removed the negative thoughts out of my mind as I saw Mr. Dawson removing his body from his daughter's embrace.

"I'm sorry for the way I reacted earlier. It was rude of me to snap at you." Ally says towards her father's face as she gives out a guilty face expression.

Mr. Dawson responds back with a calm tone," I know Sweety. I just want what is best for you. But then again, I need to realize that you are no longer my little girl anymore. So for now, I will just be on the sidelines."

Ally nodded her head in amazement by her father's response meanwhile Mr. Dawson moves away from her. In that second I was excepting him to come towards me but instead he just gives me an expression that says; don't tell anyone about what we talked about. I nodded my head in agreement before seeing him turn his back on us. Ally and I kept quiet for a second, as we watched Mr. Dawson walking out towards his office again.

"So what did my father talked to you about?" Ally says towards me in a curious tone as she turns her head my way.

My throat gets a little dried up as my eyes wondered around the open concept kitchen area. In this moment, I wasn't sure what to say. If I was that seventeen year old boy that Ally knew before, then I would have told her in a heartbeat. But we needed to face the facts; I wasn't that naive seventeen year old boy whose crush was more important to him then the elders around him. Besides Mr. Dawson was more like my father to me then my own father was. So instead of saying something back towards Ally, my hands decide to reach out towards the peeling cutter, which was lying on a nearby kitchen counter, and started to shave its skin off.

"Well are you going to answer my question?" Ally asks again as she watches me peel the carrots.

"Ally I am sorry but I can't say anything. Your father told me not to say a word about it until the time is right" I responded back truthfully.

Ally was a little upset from my response. I could tell by her posture that she wanted to pressure me into tell her what happen. But my guess is that she didn't because she respects her father more than anyone in the world. So instead of saying something back towards me, Ally just gives me an understanding smile as she turns her direction back towards the stove. Her small white skin tone fingers turned the knob of one of burners to the left as the blue fire from the preoccupied burner dies down a little. Silence takes over us and I couldn't help but blurt out one question that has been on my mind since I came back into the kitchen.

"Was that guy, Jack?"

Ally froze a little from the unexpected question but responds back with a teasing tone," Why is someone jealous of him."

I let out laugh of amusement as I state back, "Now why would I be jealous… That is unless you want me to be jealous?"

Ally let out a scolded as she responds back, "Gosh Nikko, could you ego get any bigger? I swear you are as bad as Patricia is with keeping a job!"

My forehead scrunched up a little as a full on confused expression took over my face.

"Ally who is Patricia?" I state towards her in an instant as my hands continued to finish off peeling the carrots.

From the corner of my eye I noticed that Ally face palm herself for bring up someone I didn't know. She leaned onto the kitchen counter before responding back.

"Patricia is my best friend from New York and she is also my second maid of honor."

"Second Maid of Honor! Man Ally, did you have a hard time choosing one!" I said towards her in a teasing tone.

Ally gesture towards me a come on look before responding, "Nikko you don't know how Patricia is. She is an ambitious and a sassy person. If I told her that she wasn't my maid of honor, then she would pressure me with the question of who the person is. And probably end up threaten the person in giving up their title. Plus I don't want to hurt her feelings."

My honey cone eyes did a clockwise roll as I whisper towards myself, "Same old Ally.

Ally hit my left arm in playful matter before respond back in a defending tone. "Hey I am not the same Ally you used to know.

"Well I would know if you ever took the chance to Skype me." I responded back in a calm tone as I continued to focus my attention on the carrots.

Ally let out a guilty sad expression as she states back towards me, "I know and I am sorry. It's just that I had to get another Skype account because I lost the password to my old account."

My head snaps out towards her direction as I respond back in confusion, "New Account! What are you talking about?"

Ally turns her direction towards me and states back, "Wait you didn't get my request?"

Full confusion takes over my face as I respond back, "What friend request!"

My hands stop what they were doing as I turned to face Ally. I couldn't believe she never told me about getting a new account. Something isn't right here.

"Jack told me that he was going to do me the favor in creating a new one since I didn't have the time to create one."

My body started to tense as I took in the new information. Jackass is trying to keep me away from Ally. Why would he do that to us! Oh wait then that means he is jealous type of person and he thinks I am going to take Ally from him. But how can that be true, if Jack has never seen me in person. This only leads me to suspect that not only is he hiding something but also doesn't want people to know what it is he is hiding. Well I guess it is time for me to figure out what you are hiding Jackass. And no one is going to stop me.

"Austin are you there." Ally says towards me as she put her right hand up in a waving gesture.

I snap out of my thoughts as I respond back in a calm tone, "Well in that case; let's get to know each other again."

Ally's brown eyes stated to shine with happiness as she responds back with smile, "Let's get closer!"

A chuckle comes out of my lips as I looked at her with a for real look.

Ally seemed to notice what she said and playfully responded back, "Not like that Austin! I meant it as two friends getting closer-"

I interrupted her by saying "Ally before you start rumbling about your embarrassing your comment is; let's just make a day for us to get closer?"

Ally let out a chuckle by my comment as she responds back, "I'd like that."

I gave her a teasing wink as I responded back, "Just text me whenever you are at the mall and I'll take a lunch break to hang out."

Ally rolled her brown eyes clockwise before stating back in a teasing on, "Okay Mr. Flirt. But for now let's get this dinner ready. The last thing we need is an angry Patricia coming into the kitchen."

I was about to respond back but instead I nodded my head in agreement as I returned to finishing up peeling and cutting the carrots.


	8. Chapter 7

Is it me or did I not get the memo to dress formal tonight?

The answer to my response was already answered for me when I took a look across the dinner table. Right there on the right side of the table were two women wearing their Sunday best dresses meanwhile the two men across from them were wearing their black tuxes. I took one more look at them before looking down at what I was wearing for the dinner. Today I am in my casual two color plaid shirt with rolled up short sleeves, torn up dark faded blue jeans and my matching high tops shoes. For sure I think my untidy blond hair got the attention from the group because the next thing I know, a blond hair woman with blue eyes got up instantly from her seat. The neural face expression that was on her face was replaced by excitement as her eyes spotted me coming their way.

"Austin Moon is that you! Oh wow it's been a while since the last time we seen each other!"

The woman says towards me with glee as she embraces me into a tight hug. My body tenses up a little as I force a small smile her direction.

"Cassidy! What a nice surprise to see you here. Ally never mentioned you being in the court."

I responded back towards her as I try not to sound too sarcastic about how I felt about her touching me. Cassidy got off of me, and I was thankful for having my personal space once again. A Latina woman with curly dark brown hair looked my way with a nice that said; meet you look. I returned the gesture as I felt Cassidy's hand grab my right arm firmly. She immediately made me sit next to her and I couldn't object to it. Feeling Cassidy's white skin tone hand on top of my tan arm made me want to vomit. When will she get it through her thick head that I don't like her?

Once I was settled down on the end of the dark chocolate wooden table, my attention turns towards the two men on my right side. A small real smile spreads through my lips as I hoped for one of them to start a conversation with me. Instead the only responses I got from them is that they didn't care about me. Nor did either of the two wanted to make any conversation with me. Instead the blue eye man that I saw earlier at the kitchen had his white tan skin tone hand on his 5S phone and was texting someone. Meanwhile the other brown eye man with curly brown hair gave me a death glare expression. I didn't quite understand why he was giving me such a look but my guesses are that this might be Ally's fiancé Jack.

"Oh so you are the famous Austin Moon that I keep hearing about from my best friend for five years."

The Hispanic woman with brown eyes says towards me from my right side. A small smirk came upon my face as I thought of a way to make this awkward situation more entertaining.

My heard turns towards the woman next to Cassidy before responding back with playful tone, "Really. And who's this best friend of yours?"

The woman noticed my playful matter and gave me a smirk of a smile that said she was going to get me.

"Well Mr. Smartass. I think you know who I am talking about. After all I wouldn't be leaving the comfort of my house of New York, just to be here talking to a Blondie. Who I for one believe doesn't know anything about weddings but the ones he has seen with his best friend. But that doesn't matter because by the end of the year, your best friend will be living a happy life with the love of her dreams." She responded back towards me in a sassy tone.

Hearing her responds was something I excepted; well since Ally warned me that her best girlfriend having a certain behavior that you don't want to mess with. But each of the words she said towards me didn't bother me. In fact it made me curious to know what Patricia is getting at when she said the words "the love of her dreams".

I gave her a fake gasp as I respond back in a teasing tone, "Why aren't you the nicest person in the world Patricia."

Patricia did a three-sixty eye roll before stating back in a sassy tone," Look Austin if you want to stay on my good side, I suggest you call me Trish. Oh and one more tip before we start planning Ally's wedding. Never smart talk me because I always have an answer back."

My hands go up in surrender gesture before stating back with a small smile, "Okay! So Trish… do you know if this everyone that is going to be in the court?"

I was excepting Trish to answer the question instead I hear Ally respond back before walking over towards the table with a pot of chicken.

"No not everyone Austin. We are waiting for your siblings, two more friends of ours and Zac's girlfriend Ashley, who is busy working on her upcoming movie."

My forehead scrounges up as I ask politely to Ally, "I am sorry but who exactly is Zac?"

The blue eye stranger from before looks straight up from his phone as he response back in a whisper, "I am Zac Silverstein and the person next to me is my older brother Jack."

The sophisticated man next Zac looked at me with a disgust look for not knowing his brother's name, and respond back with sarcasm, "Well for someone who is Ally's best friend, you sure seem to not know that much about her. Don't you old sport?

I gridded my teeth as I tried to ignore this comment. No wonder why Ally's father hates him. It's only been the first time we meet and already this guy is making it so easy for me to hate his guts. Jack thinks I am some guy who doesn't deserve Ally's friendship. Meanwhile his brother Zac seems to be a shy guy with mystery. I may not like Jack's guts but maybe later on I will ask Ally, what's his problem?

"Oh so sorry I would know have known that, if someone completed their so called promised he made towards his fiancé with letting her friends know about her new account. Than none of this would have happened." I responded back without losing my cool.

"Austin! I can't-" Ally starts to say towards me as she takes a seat between Jack and me. But Jack puts his hand up for her to stop her unfinished statement before stating back towards Ally, "Don't worry about it Dear Ally. It was my fault. I must have not seen missed his user name by accident."

Accident my ass, I say towards myself. My left hand clenches into a white fist as I noticed Mr. Dawson coming towards the table. He took a seat where the nook's wall is located at before looking at me with a warning expression. I took a deep breath in and out before noticing that everyone around me was getting food onto their empty plates. My fist loosens up before grabbling any of the contents on the table and placing them onto my plate. As we continued on eating, I was trying my hardest as I could to avoid any conversation with Cassidy. Which I must say isn't an easy task since I had to be seating next to her.

The next five seconds turned from me talking to me and into Cassidy talking to me about her days at Melody Diner. In the back of my mind I wanted to so badly to start a conversation with Ally but her whole attention was on Jack. If I wasn't for being gentleman that my mother raised me to be; then I would have turn Ally's way and start a conversation. But much to my luck I wasn't like that. Plus my conscious kept on tell me to put my feeling aside for the moment and keep my attention on Cassidy. Besides it's not fair on her part to take the time to start a conversation with me and have someone ignore her.

A sigh came out of my mouth as I continued to listen to her boring day. A few seconds pass and I was so tempted to make an excuse to leave the dinner table. Talk about having a worse time ever. Trish seemed to notice how I felt and decided to interrupt our conversation.

"So Austin I was wondering, if you answer this one question for me."

When I heard her question, I mentally said yes in the back of my mind as I respond back, "Sure what's your question Trish?"

Trish gave me a smile as she responds in a polite tone, "Is it true that you perform all around Miami Mall?"

A shock and yet uncomfortable expression took over my face. The reason why I thought this is because it never occurred to me that Trish would know about me and my singing days. But my guesses are that Ally must have told her about what we used to do our free time when we were in high school. At that time, Ally would write songs and I would perform them for her since she had stage fight. We agreed to do it because we thought it would be an awesome way to become famous. In less than a year our dreams came true, when Sir Jimmy Starr from Starr Records comes over towards Sonic Boom. The late man himself said towards us that he saw my summer blast performance at the mall and wanted to sign us on a record. The only one catch is that he needed us to send in a new music video within the week. Lucky for us, my best friend from kindergarten, Dez Fisher was looking for his next video project and accepted the task in a heartbeat.

Everything was going great in life until our label producer decided to hand over his company over towards his older daughter, Kira Starr. No one knew about the change of owners until our Senior Year of High School. Kira promised us that we could continue on working together under the company without any problems. Little did we know that her boyfriend Kylie Lautner from Los Angles was going to ask for her hand in marriage on our graduation day. And of course Kira accepted to be his husband and decided to move the company to Los Angles.

In the meantime, Ally decided to make an application to M.U.N.Y because she had a gut feeling that this wasn't going to end so well. I agreed with Ally and helped her get over her stage fright. Well it was more like determination, on my part, to find a way to get her on stage. My luck was so great in high school, because on her graduation party, I was able to help Ally conquer her stage fight. That night we performed a song together at Studio Karaoke Club and had an amazing time together. It was our first and sadly my last time performing on stage. No one ever knew about my decision except for my parents. They weren't happy with my choice but never said a word about it and that was the end of it.

"I am sorry Trish but I haven't performed in five years." I responded back towards her in a bittersweet tone as I started to pick on my steam carrots.

An awkward silence took over the dinner table as everyone around me took in the recent confession that came out from my lips. From the comer of my golden brown eyes, I noticed Ally was looking at me with bewilderment. It amazes me how she is able to hide all her emotions on her face. But I could see behind those doe brown wide-eyes of her like an open book. In her eyes it showed that she couldn't believe my answer. Ally isn't usually a type of girl who likes the spotlight so instead of saying anything about it; she silently looks me hard in the eyes as she shows some sort of discomfort. No one knows what that gesture means but I got the message behind it. She wanted to talk about it later but I truly didn't really want to talk about it. I was about to put my foot down on the subject when I realized that she was feeling worse than she had earlier before knowing about Jack's actions about not sending me a Skype request to be her friend.

It shattered my heart to see that Ally felt like she is enemy in our non-excitant communication these past five years. But the truth is… she isn't the one, who should be blaming herself. After all it was all Jack's fault because he believes that I would get in between their relationship. I am not an observant person on certain things but I am not that stupid to not notice his actions. After all I sort of knew that his actions were no accident. Sure Jack may have not said it towards my face but I could read all sorts of jealousy actions better than anything else in the world. Jack is jealous of me and he thought that if he could cut off all the conversations between Ally and me; then I wouldn't be a threat to him. Little did he know that his plan back fired because of the impact I had on his beloved Ally.

Trish seemed to notice the silent conversation between Ally and I. And so she decided to move her attention towards Jack before he could ever notice our silent conversation gaze.

"So Jack, how is the Mall business doing?" She asked politely as she took in another bite of her half eaten meal.

My eyes looked towards Jack's direction and saw a prideful expression on his face. He looked at me with a smirk that said; I can support Ally better than you can before taking the time to respond back towards Trish's question in a confident tone.

"Amazing! We have everything set for the concert we are having with Rihanna in December."

In the back of my mind I rolled my eyes as I said within my thoughts, yeah you might have some concert with her at your mall. But I bet you have never actually spent a whole day working on creating a new song with Rihanna. I of course wasn't going to say that out loud because no one needs to know about my other job. You see I don't only just own my music store. But my brother Kurt and I write songs for celebrity artists whenever he is here in Miami. That all changed when Kurt taught me the basics of being a Digital Media Arts. And from there on I been doing it on the side on the weekends

"Really! Oh How I so wish I could meet her in person." Cassidy exclaim towards Jack with admiration.

Mr. Dawson just smiles kindly at Jack as he looks over at my direction with a bigger smile. It may seem like a small smile to everyone but to me he was saying that I have better chance with Ally than he did. I just returned the smile as everyone around us listened on to Jack's so called stupid prideful moment. Trish continued to ask questions throughout dinner until her fork fell onto the floor. My leg suddenly felt the small sliver object hit me and so I decided to get it from floor. I pushed the chair I was in backwards as I started to kneel on all four.

"Austin what are you doing?" Ally asked with confusion as she looks down toward me.

I stop from what I was about to do before stating towards her, "OH I am just going to pick of Trish's fork. She must have gotten a little excited that she accidently dropped her fork."

Ally nodded in agreement before pushing her chair back and going down towards the floor as she responded back towards me "Here let me help you look for it."

I was about to tell her no when we heard Jack say towards Ally, "Ally Dear, I think Trish needs a fork. Can you please go over to the kitchen area and get one for her."

Ally looked at me and I mouth out the words go before seeing her get up from her position and walking back in the kitchen area. Once she was away from me, my hands picked up the table cloth from where I was kneeling from and looked at the scene in front of me with horror. Right there in my eyes I saw Jack playing footsy with Cassidy. Thinking that my imagination was taking over me, I closed my eyes as I started to crawl underneath the table. My eyes flew open again and I knew for sure that I wasn't dreaming. Jack's dressy black shoe was touching Cassidy's open toe red high heels. My body freezes as so many questions came into the back of my mind. I must have taken a while because I heard a chair being pushed backwards and Trish saying something towards the other people on the table.

"Austin is taking a long time. Maybe I should go check up on him."

No one said a word towards her. So Trish took that as a yes. Her small hands scrunched up the table cloth in front of her seat before going underneath the table. As she was about to make her way down, Jack removes his foot from Cassidy's foot. My body started to boil up from his sneaky action as I tried to prevent myself from attacking Jack's leg with the sliver fork that was now in front of my right hand.

"Austin." Trish said softly towards me as she noticed my furious face expression.

My head snaps towards her direction before stating back in a harsh tone, "I can't believe this asshole. How could he being having affairs with other woman. Doesn't he know that Ally is going to be hurt once she find out about his unfaithfulness?"

Trish gave me a gesture that says I know before stating towards me in a cautious tone, "Austin don't say anything about this to Ally. This isn't something we should say to her."

Anger took control over me from hearing her ridiculous statement. How can she tell me not to say anything about this to Ally? I wish I could just shout out towards her that it is the right thing to do. But I didn't because Trish gave me a guilty-scared look as her body started having a panic attack. Fear was what I thought she had across her face, but I couldn't seem to understand why she was looking at me like that. And that's when my thoughts said towards me, she is threaten to be silent by Jack

"Trish what is it?" I said softly for her hear as I tried to control my anger.

Trish bit her lip as she debated on telling me what is going wrong. It is as if she was feeling guilty that I figured out what is going on between Jack and Her. And yet she feels like she couldn't tell me about it because she might have a problem later on. Trish looked back at me with a vulnerable expression before seeing her face expression change rapidly into a serious face expression.

"Promise me you won't tell Ally about this." Trish stated towards me in a demanding-whisper tone

"You should tell Ally what is going on! And stop trying to change to the subject." I state back toward her in a demanding whisper.

Trish was about to fight back but she saw how much I cared for Ally through my eyes. It amazes me, how some girls can only met a guy in a day and see right through their eyes like an open book. Trish is one of those special women who are very observant. She might have only met me today but she already knew that I have fallen in love with my best friend. Trish's frighten eyes showed that she was fighting to keep her guard down but after a few second pass by; she decided to let it down.

"Fine I will tell you. But right here isn't a good place to talk about it." She responded towards me in a shattered tone as she looked down towards the dark brown laminated wooden floor.

"Why not, Trish; you are being very distant! Are you in danger Trish? Is Jack threatening you to keep quite?" I asked her with confusion as I looked at her with concern.

Trish's face expression changes into anger and she snaps back at me by saying, "Look Austin I can't say anything. Just promise me that you won't tell Ally about it. If there is anyone who should tell her, it's me."

I let her off the hook before stating back towards her, "Fine I won't tell Ally because of your reaction about this situation. But you have to tell her before its late. Plus Ally is your best friend and she is going to need to know about it. If you don't than I will tell her about it. So take this as a warring. It has to be you or me who tell her what is going on."

Trish relaxed from my response before responding in relief, "Thank you Austin. I knew from the moment I saw you that you love Ally. And if she finds out about it from someone else, I promise you that I will clear it up with her. But there is one thing that I advise you to do once you find out everything."

I nodded my head in a way to show her that I listening to what she needed to say before Trish continued on her statement.

" After I tell you want is going on, you must watch your back at all times and be sure to not to leave Ally with Jack for more than a few seconds. You better spend as much time as you can with her and don't ever allow Jack to lay a finger on her. I can't say much of the reason why but I will tell you one thing before we finish this conversation.

Confusion took over my face as I respond back," And what is that?"

"Not everyone in this very room is trustworthy."

My mouth opens up to ask another question. But before I could say another word, Trish already crawled out from under the table. So many questions started to swirl into my mind again but I decided to push them out towards the back of my brain. I really don't want to face everyone at the table but I knew I had to. A sigh came out of my mouth as I picked up the dirty silverware and crawled out of the table.

"Well it took you long enough to find the fork. What did you have problems finding a dumb fork." Jack says towards me with cockiness.

In this moment, I didn't know what to say back. My guess is that I am still a little shock from what I saw underneath. So instead of saying anything towards anyone, I just kept my mouth shut as we waited to Ally to come back into the dining room area.

* * *

Zac is Zac Efron  
Ashley is Ashley Tisdale


End file.
